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From this Sunday's Up With Chris Hayes, his Story of the Week where he discusses the disconnect between the ultra-wealthy campaign donors who we saw asking painfully ridiculous questions to Mitt Romney during that secretly recorded fundraiser of his from earlier this year, and the lives of the rest of us. As Chris asked, how different would our politics look if the Romney's of the world were forced to sit down with and listen to rooms full or ordinary workers day after day instead of these out of touch, wealthy plutocrats who do not share the same concerns as most of the country.

Hayes: This is what plutocracy looks like:

The video of Mitt Romney talking to donors that Mother Jones posted last week is an incredible artifact from an entire culture and civilization that exists in our midst, but which we hardly ever get to see: the world of the high-end donor. And, whoo boy it is not pretty. The first thing that jumps out is that a lot of the questions are really inane.

In fact, I almost feel sorry for Mitt Romney having to sit there and politely smile and nod as donors pick through their salad and tell him that what he really needs to do to win is "take the gloves off" or "show your face more on tv"—something he's been doing more or less non-stop.

The folks in the room all but advise Romney to simply tour around the country reading passages of Ayn Rand novels out loud at his campaign rallies and hectoring the idiotic masses to bow before their obvious superior. Romney, who is many things, but not a total fool, gently explains that that probably is not the best way to go about attempting to win over the Obama voters he needs to be elected. Almost none of the advice Romney gets during the tape is very good, some of it's terrible.

That's not novel, of course, everyone who watches politics closely thinks they have the secret insight that will win the election. Unlike the millions of other political junkies and backseat drivers, this small coterie of folks, by sole virtue of their wealth, gets to impose their invaluable insights on the actual candidate. It would be like the head coach of the Giants, Tom Coughlin, having to spend most of the week between games meeting with the opinionated fans who call into sports talk radio with their theories about how the Giants should be blitzing on every down, or lining up two quarterbacks under center.

This is the power of money not just in politics, but in society more broadly: the power to make people listen to your ideas no matter how dumb or uninformed. The other thing that stood out to me was just how under siege, persecuted, and victimized these extremely wealthy people appear to feel.

Keep in mind we're talking about a fundraiser that cost $50,000 a plate. Fifty thousand dollars also happens to be the median household income in the U.S. So the kind of wealth you need to have to be in the room with Romney is the kind of wealth that means you can just pony up as much money as many Americans make in a year to listen to Mitt Romney trash talk the very people who make in a year the same amount you just ponied up for dinner. Read on...

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After explaining that Mitt Romney's so-called "reboot" this week was thrown off by the leak of the tapes of him trashing half of the country as a bunch of lazy, mooching freeloaders at a wealthy donor's fundraiser earlier this year, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart explained that it set off a "firestorm everywhere, but nowhere more acutely than at Romney campaign headquarters," otherwise known as Fox "News."

As Stewart noted, it triggered something he likes to call "Chaos on Bulls#%t Mountain."

Which was followed by one of the better smack-downs of ClusterFox for their propaganda machine going into high gear trying to give cover to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and for repeating his talking points about all those "welfare queens" that make up 47 percent of the country. As Stewart pointed out, the real welfare queens are the likes of ExxonMobil, AT&T, Wall Street, wealthy farmers, and their poster child, Mitt Romney.

Part two below the fold.

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We all knew this was coming. The Daily Show's Jon Stewart does his best to unpack Mitt Romney's ridiculous assertions about that lazy, mooching 47 percent that just wants to live off of the government dole. And in the process we get treated to a Mr. Smithers analogy and Stewart pointing out that apparently Mittens' own parents would not be supporters of his, since they were on welfare.

And last but not least Stewart compared Romney's disastrous press conference the previous night to the captain of a cruise ship trying to convince the everyone to stay calm while blowing up his life jacket, just before hitting an iceberg.

If the Romney campaign thinks these leaked tapes from Mother Jones are going away any time soon, I think they're sadly mistaken.

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The Romney campaign needs to get themselves some better spokespeople if they're going to continue to say things like this: Mary Matalin: Thanks To Romney, We Can Single Out ‘Parasites’:

Conservative commentator Mary Matalin hailed Mitt Romney's "47 percent" line on CNN as good news for Republicans.

"There are makers and takers, there are producers and there are parasites," she said. "Americans can distinguish between those who have produced and paid in through no fault of their own and because of Obama's horrible polices who cannot get a job or are underemployed. That's what the campaign is about."

Matalin really needs to put down the Ayn Rand novels and find somewhere else to get her talking points if she wants to stop alienating everyone in the country other than the extreme right-wing, libertarian leaning Republican base. Most people don't believe poor are causing our problems in the United States, or that they don't pay enough in taxes. Quite the opposite, in fact. But if you listen to Lady McCheney here, it's those lazy, mooching, welfare recipients that refuse to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps that are destroying America.

As Hilary Rosen reminded her, it's not the 1960's any more.

Full transcript below the fold.

(John Amato: This reminds me of the time that Glenn Beck called me a parasite.)

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As Media Matters noted, if Mitt Romney was hoping to find some friendly territory after the previous day with the leaked tapes of his "47 percent" rant and the disastrous press conference that followed later that evening, he wasn't going to find any friendlier territory than Neil Cavuto's show on Fox.

Romney Turns To Fox News' Chief "47 Percent" Antagonist: Neil Cavuto:

Mitt Romney, taking a considerable amount of heat over leaked videos showing him bashing 47 percent of voters as incorrigible moochers, will reportedly sit down with Fox News' Neil Cavuto this afternoon for an interview. From a damage control perspective, that move makes a lot of sense. You'd be hard-pressed to find a media figure more antagonistic toward the poor, more contemptuous of recipients of government benefits, and more sympathetic to Romney's line of attack than Neil Cavuto.

To recap, Mother Jones published a surreptitiously filmed video of Romney at a fundraiser telling donors that "there are 47 percent who are with [President Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims ... These are people who pay no income tax." Romney added: "My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

It's an argument tailor-made for Cavuto's sensibilities.

Lots more there with Cavuto trashing the poor as moochers and bemoaning the rich being asked to pay more in taxes with lots of video to boot. And as TPM noted, Mittens decided to play the "I know you are, but what am I?" game again during the interview as well -- Mitt Romney To Obama: No, You Have A Hidden Video Problem:

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David Corn, who broke the story about the Romney fundraiser which we posted here -- Mitt Romney's Uncensored Disdain for Poor People and Minorities -- joined Rachel Maddow with the latest updates on the story and revealed who the host was at the event where Romney made his remarks.

Here's more from his latest article at Mother Jones -- Romney "47 Percent" Fundraiser Host: Hedge Fund Manager Who Likes Sex Parties:

When Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser dismissed all Barack Obama voters as moochers and victims—showing disdain for nearly half of the American electorate—he was speaking at the home of controversial private equity manager Marc Leder in Boca Raton on May 17, 2012. This is evident from references made by Romney within the full video recording of the event that has been reviewed by Mother Jones.

When Mother Jones first disclosed secret video of Romney's remarks, we were obliged to not reveal details regarding the time and place of the event. That restriction has been lifted, as the story has garnered attention throughout the media. [...]

Romney made those remarks before donors who had paid $50,000 a plate to attend the dinner at Leder's swanky house.

Leder has long been a fan of Romney. In January, the New York Times reported:

Years ago, a visit to Mr. Romney's investment firm inspired Mr. Leder to get into private equity in the first place. Mr. Romney was an early investor in some of the deals done by Mr. Leder's investment company, Sun Capital, which today oversees about $8 billion in equity.

Read on...

And as Rachel also noted, the Obama campaign responded to Mitt Romney's remarks and here is their statement:

CHICAGO – “It's shocking that a candidate for President of the United States would go behind closed doors and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half the American people view themselves as ‘victims,’ entitled to handouts, and are unwilling to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their lives. It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.” – Jim Messina, Obama for America Campaign Manager

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Despite the fact that MSNBC, CNN, Current TV and who knows how many other media outlets had already shown or covered the devastating clips that Mother Jones released this Monday, Fox News decided to feign ignorance and pretend they had no prior knowledge of the story when Mitt Romney gave his press conference in response to the leaked videos.

Had they not been completely ignoring the story intentionally instead of covering it, maybe they wouldn't have had to pretend like they were clueless after they were notified that Romney was doing press availability.

Greta Van Susteren brought in their previously scheduled guest, KT McFarland, following Romney's just devastating press conference and the best she had to offer in response is that Mittens ought to be talking about national security and the problems with the protests and unrest in the Middle East and Africa instead.

And despite Van Susteren pretending that the Romney presser was the first she'd heard about the Mother Jones story, amazingly her panel of Byron York, Michael Crowley and Rick Klein were somehow able to fill her in on it. Imagine that? Fox really is becoming a parody of itself these days.

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Look for more of the nonsense talking point you heard during this segment in the coming week from the right. This recording of Romney is just like President Obama during the primary season when he was up against Hillary, talking about people "clinging to their guns and their religion." They conceded that it's not the same in this segment, but you watch, they'll be using that same line on Fox as the week goes on and doing their best to play the false equivalency game.

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I'm not sure what the Romney campaign hoped to accomplish with this, other than to be able to use it for a talking point over at Fox to trick the viewers there into believing he's got some support from African American voters, but his appearance at the NAACP just keeps taking more bizarre twists.

Did the Romney campaign plant supporters at NAACP speech?:

Did Mitt Romney's campaign plant African-American supporters in the audience to cheer for the speech the candidate gave Wednesday to the NAACP? That's what the NAACP's Hilary Shelton claimed on The Ed Show. (See Late Updates below).

Romney said today that after the speech, at which he was booed for saying he'd repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, he met with black leaders who told him they support his policies but are afraid to do so publicly.

But on The Ed Show, Shelton said those were likely people brought in by the Romney camp "to actually provide the cheering for him."

"Quite frankly, the campaign actually gave me a list of African-American VIPs that they brought into the NAACP meeting," Shelton told Ed Schulz. "So we were aware that they had people brought in specifically for the campaign. So I'm sure those were the ones they sat down with, because quite frankly none of the rank-and-file NAACPers met with him."

Indeed, despite the boos, cheering can be heard at various points during the speech, including when Romney criticized President Obama over the economy and education.

Shelton said that none of the people Romney met with were active NAACP leaders, and that Romney's referring to African-American conservative politicians like Niger Innis who "was brought in from New York."

Pressed by Ed Schultz about whether Innis and the others were actually members of the NAACP, Shelton said: "They're bringing people in that they know will support his agenda from other places, that aren't active with the NAACP. These are people who are brought in to actually provide the cheering for him, so there will be some support along those lines."

As they noted in their updates, the Romney campaign denied the allegations, but they got confirmation backing up Shelton's claims from a couple of different sources who were there. I'm not sure what good Romney thought this little fiasco was going to do him, especially after the remarks he made at the fundraiser following the speech at the NAACP.

Here he is on Cavuto's show earlier the same day, telling Neil that he expected the booing and that he's got support from African American leaders who he supposedly met with that they were discussing in the segment on Schultz's show.

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From Rachel Maddow's show this Wednesday evening, Mitt Romney responded to being booed during his speech at the NAACP for saying he would end "Obamacare," at a fundraiser in Hamilton, Montana and showed his true colors when he said this:

ROMNEY: Remind them of this, if they want more free stuff from the government tell them to go vote for the other guy -- more free stuff. But don't forget nothing is really free.

Wow. I guess he wants to make sure he drives that African American support from 1-2 percent all the way down to zero. As Rachel Maddow noted, it was pretty obvious Romney wanted to get booed and he's not wasting any time showing us why. He's all ready with the race baiting right out of the gate.

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As Think Progress noted, after complaining and fearmongering about the mandate that will require insurance companies to cover the cost of contraceptives at no cost, and lying and calling emergency contraception "an abortion pill," which it's not, now he going to be fundraising with the drug manufacturer's chairman.

Romney To Fundraise With Plan B Maker Despite Denouncing Emergency Contraception As ‘Abortive Pills’:

In particular, Romney denounced the fact that insurance plans would now be required to cover Plan B, a form of emergency contraception that he falsely referred to on numerous occasions as “abortive pills.” This is what Romney said in Colorado on February 6, 2012:

ROMNEY: This same administration said that the churches and the institutions they run, such as schools and let’s say adoption agencies, hospitals, that they have to provide for their employees free of charge, contraceptives, morning after pills, in other words abortive pills, and the like at no cost. Think what that does to people in faiths that do not share those views. This is a violation of conscience.

(Plan B works just like regular birth control pills and is not, in fact, an abortifacient.)

The Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo reports that next week the Romney campaign will be doing a major fundraising blitz across Florida, including an event “at the Star Island manse of pharmaceutical magnate Phil and Pat Frost where dinner costs $50,000.”

As they also noted in their post, this is not the first time he's done this. Go read the post for the rest of the list. And as they reported, here's more on the campaign's response:

Bloomberg News reports that the Romney campaign refused to comment on this story:

Romney’s campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, didn’t respond to a request for comment on how the candidate, who opposes abortion rights, could accept support from the maker of “abortive pills.”

The list of Mitt Romney's lies, contradictions, flip flops and obfuscations just grows longer and longer each day. I'm happy to see that Al Sharpton covered this topic on his show this Tuesday since it hasn't gotten a lot of airplay anywhere else that I've seen, but he should have noted that Romney was lying about Plan B being an "abortion pill." He failed to point that out in the segment above.